> Of course, to the extent that the bellhead culture did have awareness of what was on the horizon, the connectionless communications paradigm enabled by packet switching was viewed as a threat to their revenues, as was the idea of a dumb network which eliminates the possibilities for telcos to provide value-added services.
Working for Nortel around this time, we were well aware of the need to collapse data and voice networks into one. My main project was to take the call handling processing logic of a TDM switch and replace the fabric with a packet switching network.
The big difference between netheads and bellheads wasn't packet vs circuit, it was reliability. Bellheads strove for 99.999% whereas netheads just didn't care. IP transmission was not reliable in those days to the extent that it is now.
Working for Nortel around this time, we were well aware of the need to collapse data and voice networks into one. My main project was to take the call handling processing logic of a TDM switch and replace the fabric with a packet switching network.
The big difference between netheads and bellheads wasn't packet vs circuit, it was reliability. Bellheads strove for 99.999% whereas netheads just didn't care. IP transmission was not reliable in those days to the extent that it is now.